Best place you've ever been?

[Colin]

Thanks.  I cannot possibly comment, but it was classes as a 'conflict' as we did not declare war on Argentina (or vice-versa0 -- but that's irrelevant.  Admittedly, loss of life is sometimes pointless, but then that's the cost of having politicians who have not served.

I must also stop politicising this thread.

It was a fascinating journey, bt not one I would wish to repeat in the back of a Herc.  The alternative at  the time would have been to travel in a flat-bottom boat (Landing Ship Logistic) for 2 weeks from Ascension to FI - not a good idea in the South Atlantic.  The SS Uganda had been the transport ship at the time but was withdrawn for a refit.  This was a pity as I had been on that ship in '73 during an educational cruise in the Med, and my mum had sailed out to Singapore from the UK on the same ship in 195* to join my dad - otherwise I would not be writing this now!

The Falklands are fascinating, but much like Dartmoor, with few trees and incessant wind (not due to beans).  The wildlife (not the Bennies) are worth visiting the Islands for.

I have also been on the SS Uganda on a cruise to Norway and Sweden when I was 9.

[Diane CBPFC]

Roger:
The Scottish Highlands – loved them – we used to go camping up there every summer when I was a kid.

Tom:
Cornwall – we only went camping down there once as Dad didn’t like the crowds but it was a magical place – Tintagel castle and the great cliffs.
Anglesey – we went here often for weekends as it wasn’t far from Buckley – Dad was part of a camping club with Hawker Sidley. I was older than a lot of the kids, the people who owned the campsite let me do what I liked with their donkeys so I would take the little kids for rides on them. To this day I still adore donkeys.

Mince:
My imagination – I hear ya. I have fantastic action-packed dreams.

Calvin:
Canada – I haven’t been much out of Alberta – but Alberta has every type of landscape you could imagine from dessert and badlands in the south east to Rocky Mountains, plains, prairies, forests and lakes. Yesterday I had to drive to Slave Lake and followed a road that passed by 75 miles of the southern side of the lake – it is such a big lake there are even small waves . Although this place is beautiful and clean I do not have as much freedom here as I had as a child in Wales. The cold and snow stop me in the winter and the mosquitoes stop me in the summer. Without a vehicle a person would be a prisoner in Alberta.

TTIII:
John O'Groats, then along the north coast and back down through the middle of the northern Highlands. – we did that a couple of times when I was a kid and I thought it was fantastic. The road was only one vehicle wide at the time and you would have to pull over or back up if you saw another vehicle. I still remember the beaches that were accessible by steep stony pathways.

Jack:
Cleethorpes – I wish I had been when I had the chance after hearing your description of it.

Malc:
Port Meirion in Wales – I loved that place as a child, another similar place was Trentham Gardens with its Italian gardens and lake that you could walk around with your dog – quiet, almost silent. There were daffodils planted under the canopy of old trees and you felt like you had walked back into history and were all alone in the world. (I visited it online about a year ago and they have turned it into a real little Disney World – no more fields to camp in but posh shops and cabins – shame).

Others: I could see Moel Famau from my bedroom window in Buckley and would love climbing to the top with my dog – I loved just walking down the lane from our house and seeing the cows in the fields and picking blackberries in the hedgerow. I imagine everyone feels that the place they grew up is special – I had so much more freedom to roam than my children had in the northern bush of Alberta where there are bears and wolves to worry about.

I like to make an annual trip to the Calgary Zoo – while I like the animals there, I love the walks and the landscaping surprises around every curved path. The cities spray for mosquitoes so you can get about more freely.

I like to be home. When we have relatives from England they like to sit in the kitchen and look out the window – it is such a pretty place right here.

[Bilthehut]

but Alberta has every type of landscape you could imagine from dessert and badlands in the south east to Rocky Mountains, plains, prairies, forests and lakes.

In my guise as 'Mince',  what kind of dessert?  Mousse?

[Calvin]

Diane,
The Rockies would be another place to make my to do list. I have friends originally from Edmonton who moved back West to Vernon B.C, I think it looks much like parts of Alberta that I've seen in pictures. I will be visiting within the next year or two.
To add to my earlier glowing review of Northern Ontario, I must stress that the time of year is usually mid to late September or March. In late spring and early summer that same piece of real estate can be the most miserable and annoying place on God's green earth due to the mozzies and blackflies.
Maybe it's because I never experienced them growing up, so never developed any "immunity" or resistance to them, I break out in huge welts when bitten that last for days and itch for days more, my discomfort keeps my Canadian born friends amused at least. If I could change one thing about this country, I think that would be it. Damn blood guzzling, West Nile Virus spreading little pieces of.....@#*#!!@#

[Vulture]

Tom:
Cornwall – we only went camping down there once as Dad didn’t like the crowds but it was a magical place – Tintagel castle and the great cliffs. - ditto - went camping with husband and three kids; the experience added to my resolve that divorce was the lesser evil!

Calvin:
Canada – Ontario – beautiful sights, fabulous sunsets, loved the snow, hated the heat in summer; contemplated moving out there but common sense (and the fact that I'm damned sure I'll never get the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road) prevailed.


Others: As a child, I spent some time in a boarding school near Mold. From my memory, the place was fantastic but I was not of the age to appreciate it!

Being a old stick-in-the-mud, sod the fantastic views, Edgware will do me fine!

[Diane CBPFC]

Diane,
The Rockies would be another place to make my to do list. I have friends originally from Edmonton who moved back West to Vernon B.C, I think it looks much like parts of Alberta that I've seen in pictures. I will be visiting within the next year or two.
To add to my earlier glowing review of Northern Ontario, I must stress that the time of year is usually mid to late September or March. In late spring and early summer that same piece of real estate can be the most miserable and annoying place on God's green earth due to the mozzies and blackflies.
Maybe it's because I never experienced them growing up, so never developed any "immunity" or resistance to them, I break out in huge welts when bitten that last for days and itch for days more, my discomfort keeps my Canadian born friends amused at least. If I could change one thing about this country, I think that would be it. Damn blood guzzling, West Nile Virus spreading little pieces of.....@#*#!!@#

Me too - I used to react worse to them than I do now, but not much - they have always been bad for me - and if I get a lot of bites (30+) I can get flu like symtoms. My friend is moving to BC (Creston) it has apple growing weather and about three months less winter than we do. Looks like a great place to retire.

I bought a mosquito magnet machine about 3 years ago - it helps - now I can run out and put some clothes on the line (or other 5 minute jobs) without having to spray myself with Off.

[The Peepmaster]

 and wolves to worry about.

It's the same with me, Diane...

I've been to Cleethorpes several times. It's the home of a league football club that bears the name of another town. Hardly fair I feel.

[lucy]

 Diane  are you from Edmonton? I got family there, aunts and uncles and there children. They always going about me not visiting, I been planning to see the Rockies, hopefully in the near future with peeps.

I love traveling, first country I ever visited is Hongkong, still my favorite. The view of the city and harbor at Victoria Peak is simply amazing! Night market at Kowloon is a must to experience, not just for shopping but also for authentic chinese cuisine.Roast Duck on display at restaurant windows, for those with exotic taste snake soup , fried cricket  etc .yuk!

Dubai during the early 90's is not bad either, I'm lucky enough to have live and work there before it became so artificial and commercialize.

Carcasonne, France , french La Cite, fortified town, you can walk along the cobblestone street and browse to shop selling medieval items, so romantic in the evening!

Finally Tignabruaich, small village in Scotland, ideal if you like peace and quiet.

So many places, country  I visited... to end up living in Bute is quite a change.

[The Peepmaster]

Mince will be getting out his red pen...

[Feather]

Kauai - so beautiful and relaxing. The sunsets were fantastic.  I want to go there again. Oahu is okay but so commercialized. I did enjoy visiting the North Shore and watching the huge waves roll in.

San Francisco/Carmel - The best of everything: restaurants and scenery.

Yucatan - fun in the jungle.

New Orleans - unique, fun and always a hint of danger.


I'd add Cornwall had I been able to see and do more there, but it was unseasonably cold, rainy and very windy, as well as being extremely crowded and so there was no place to stay on the coast.  I would have loved the opportunity to have been able to hike along the cliffs and been able to wander around some of the quaint little towns. The Eden Project looked interesting. What I did see was beautiful, and I enjoyed Tintagel.

[Diane CBPFC]

Hi Lucy - Edmonton is our nearest major city and where my son will be going this next fall for Uni. But is is about a five hour drive from where we live. I like to get down there once a year for the opera with the kids.

It would be cool if you and Nige could come visit we could sit in the garden and swat mosquitoes together and roast marshmallows and sing cowboy songs. 

[Malc]

Forgot to mention North of Ireland, we stayed at Glengad near Mallen Head on the Inishowen Peninsula a couple of years ago, very rugged but gorgeous and quiet. Our friends loaned us their house (a holiday home they had free at the time) for ten days, and I would love to go there again to write and draw. The atmosphere was very conducive to work.

[Malc]

Would you believe it, my wife just posted some photos of the Glengad holiday on Facebook. This is the view from the cottage door

[Diamond Lil]

When I was a teenager I took a Greyhound bus in the States and went coast-to-coast.  We arrived in St Louis as the sun was going down and I'll remember forever the light on that 'Arch to the West'

In Turkey, spent a day in 100 degree heat in Ephesus...walking along marble streets leading down to the sea, it was easy to imagine the scene thousands of years ago.

The view from the terrace of a certain villa in the Algarve.

The gardens at Poolewe on the west coast of Scotland.

[The Peepmaster]

The fabulous interior of the Oran Mor bar in the West End of Glasgow. Also the historic, Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow city centre - with the longest bar in the UK. The Golfers Bar in Rothesy with its great art-deco counter and artifacts. The Neptune pub in Broadstairs with its Victorian inside that is now listed...